breaking into a steering gear

had fun today tearing into a steering gear off of an international truck which is the same gear on the freightliner in the shop as well.

its pretty simple, a piston moves inside a sleep with a worm screw going through it. the piston has teeth notched out of it and the pitman arm has a cog on it that meshes with the teeth on the piston, as the steering wheel turns it turns the worm gear and moves the piston back and forth thus moving the pitman arm and turning the truck.

Steering suspension

Wrapping up alignments today, did two lazar alinements on the yellow international and in the beginning was half a degree toed out, when you want about a quarter of a degree toe in.

then with the string and tape measurements i did on the freightliner. the toe on the front axle was under a quarter inch toed in, which is good. and before fixing the rear drive axels it was about three inches off normal so we fixed that and got it running straight again, before messing it up for the next person.

Steering and suspension

Today me and a few others where able to hoist up the front end of a kenworth truck, pull the axel out from under it. and before we go putting it back Jeff has asked me and another student to make up some support columns  for the underside of the truck to put two 10 ton jack stands under it so it will leave the front end hanging out with nothing under it in the way. 

So i got a very detailed crash course in welding from jeff. just need to now is practice practice practice.

Brakes cont... videos

I finished all the assigned brakes for the class. 14 of them. 

Plus took apart an end on a forklift axel. Got to see the planetary gear train inside the hub as well as the brakes for it. even getting to use my tools for a while! 

a dirty tool is a happy tool in my book.

attached are my videos for the brake change and wheel hub adjustment on the white kenworth truck

please excuse the back ground noise.

pt 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1FWZYhldyg

pt 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EYHu2IGaLg&feature=relmfu

pt 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoRmf-9d1oc&feature=relmfu

pt 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb4VyWyPzVA&feature=relmfu

pt 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTNky7p8ZPM&feature=relmfu

pt 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skgqqVb-Y5A&feature=relmfu

pt 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tXcirsdxBM&feature=relmfu

pt 8

pt 9

pt 10

pt 11

pt 12

Brakes

over the last week or so working on brakes on a Frightliner, Kenworth, and International truck that are in the shop. inspecting wheel bearings, wheel seals, and slack adjusters making sure they are in specifications. 

Getting to use my tools i got having lots of fun with them.

Still trying to post my video i made for this and its giving me a hard time

end to electrical for the quarter

Just a little something to wrap up the Electrical part of the quarter.

If the military is using this then it will be on the roads soon enoughhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3ovDFIJvUI

april 18th

sorry its been a bit since i updated last. On the 14th of april me and a buddy from class went to the PACCAR center in MT Vernon. Had a great time, saw lots of diffrent trucks and tests that they do to them. 

Still having "fun" on the test boards we are doing. its a lot nicer to not have everyone trying to grab for them so thats a plus.